An Empirical Study of the Relationship between Macroeconomic Variables and Stock Price: A Study on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE)

Literature strongly supports vibration of the stock price as a consequence of various macroeconomic factors (Darrat, 1990; Fama & Schwert, 1977; Jaffe & Mandelker, 1976; Nelson, 1976; Pearce & Roley, 1985; Ripley, 1973). This study has investigated the explanatory power of various macro-factors such as inflation rate, exchange rate, interest rate, money supply and production index on the variability of the stock price in Bangladesh. Multiple regression analysis has been conducted to asses the relationship between the stated macro economic factors with stock price. All share price index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange has been used as a proxy for stock price, the dependent variable of the study. No significant relationship has been found between the stock price and any of the macroeconomic factors. The study bodes well for advanced empirical models with additional macroeconomic variables.

Painting process improvement through six sigma approach in a Malaysian vehicle assembly company

Painting is an important process in the automotive assembly to give more attractive appearance to the vehicles and to provide the layer of protection against corrosion and weathering. The objective of this paper is to identify and analyze the factors affecting the quality of painting process at Company RST’s Paint Shop. The paint shop was unable to perform the painting process satisfactorily and deliver the painted vehicle bodies as per customer specifications. The study concentrated on the fiber defect detected at Top Coat Area as the major problem of paint deficiency. Using activities like Genba investigation, data collection, trials and data analysis, the root causes of the problem were identified. Six Sigma DMAIC approach was utilized in conducting the improvement activities. Through designed experiments conducted to determine the best parameter setting of the spray gun used in the painting process, it was found that 3.5 bars for air pressure and 450 ml/minutes for fluid delivery resulted in the lowest paint defect. The use of Six Sigma DMAIC approach had succeeded in helping the company to minimize paint fiber defect per unit (DPU) from 10 to less than 3 DPU. The results from the study have provided an insight on successful deployment of DMAIC through application of its various statistical tools and techniques, and as the systematic problem-solving framework on solving actual industrial issues such as automotive painting problem

Relationship between Induction of Novel Somaclonal Variants and Types of Organogenesis in Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.)

A comparative study on induction of somaclonal variation in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) cv. Birdie regenerants obtained through direct and indirect organogenesis was carried out. Two types of non-meristematic explants (e.g. cotyledon and petiole) were used for this study. A significantly lower (p<0.05) frequency of variation was observed in muskmelon somaclones regenerated via direct organogenesis (MS medium with BAP) compared to indirect (MS medium with BAP and 2,4-D). Morphological study revealed that the somaclones regenerated from proximal cotyledon, petiole and distal cotyledon explants through direct organogenesis did not show any variation in elongation medium at the concentrations of BAP 0.1, 0.3 and 0.5 mg-l, respectively. In contrast, higher number of morphologically somaclonal variants was obtained from these explants at the same concentration of BAP obtained through indirect organogenesis. Other concentrations of BAP, on the other hand, added to the elongation medium showed higher percentage of somaclones with different types of novel variations, e.g. early flowering including higher number of flowers, slow growth of shoots with variant shape of leaves having long and thick petioles, and stubby shoot apices including flattened stem. These variations could be the prime genetic materials to develop new varieties of muskmelon, e.g. high yielding variety, early, late variety, dwarf variety, and variety with desirable body configurations. The results suggest that specific concentrations of BAP or combinations of BAP and 2,4-D have a significant (p<0.05) influence on the induction of novel somaclonal variations in muskmelon regenerants. Future cytogenetic and molecular studies reveal that the novel genetic variations at the chromosome level in somaclonal variants can exist

Influence of silver nitrate (ethylene inhibitor) on cucumber in vitro shoot regeneration

The effect of addition of silver nitrate (AgNO3) on organogenesis of proximal and distal cotyledon and hypocotyl explants of five cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cultivars was investigated. Distal cotyledon and hypocotyl were unresponsive while only poor shoot regeneration was observed in proximal cotyledon and hypocotyl explants of all cucumber cultivars. The addition of different concentrations of AgNO3 (10, 30 and 50 µM) to the medium, however, induced shoot regeneration in distal cotyledon except Suyo Long cultivar and effectively increased shoot regeneration response as well as the number of shoots per explant in proximal cotyledon and hypocotyl of all cucumber cultivars

Recycling intention and behavior among Low-Income Households

To improve our knowledge of how to protect the environment, this study examined the factors that influence recycling intention and behavior among low-income households. The study adopted a cross-sectional design that relied on 380 low-income households who live in coastal Peninsular Malaysia. The findings revealed a positive effect of eco-literacy, environmental concern, and self-efficacy on the attitude towards environmentally friendly products. Subsequently, the findings also illustrated a positive effect of normative beliefs on subjective norms. Moreover, the results revealed a positive effect of attitude towards environmentally friendly products and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on recycling intention. Finally, there was a positive effect of both PBC and recycling intention on recycling behavior. Although this study’s focus on a specific income group from a single country could limit generalizability; the findings nevertheless provide scholars and policymakers with significant insights into promoting recycling activities, which are expected to contribute to the environment and reduce the environmental and economic vulnerability among low-income households. Therefore, environmental and socio-economic development organizations should assess the feasibility of recycling materials and develop a supportive system that facilitates and encourages recycling activities

Performance analysis of a highly available home agent in mobile networks

Network Mobility as a service is provided by the NEMO protocol in IPv6 environments. NEMO is an extension to MIPv6, and thus inherits the same reliability problems of MIPv6. MIPv6 is not reliable because the Home Agent (HA) is a single point of failure. In order to provide real-time services for MIPv6 networks, reliability should be considered as part of any high availability solution used to deploy Mobile IPv6 networks. Approach: Many approaches have been taken to solve the problem of HA as a single point of failure. In our proposed solution, failure detection and recovery is handled by the home agent. Therefore, recovery is transparent to the mobile network. Results: In this work we opted for using HA redundancy to provide a highly available home agent solution which achieves recovery times suitable for real-time applications

A survey of single and multi-UAV aerial manipulation

Aerial manipulation has direct application prospects in environment, construction, forestry, agriculture, search, and rescue. It can be used to pick and place objects and hence can be used for transportation of goods. Aerial manipulation can be used to perform operations in environments inaccessible or unsafe for human workers. This paper is a survey of recent research in aerial manipulation. The aerial manipulation research has diverse aspects, which include the designing of aerial manipulation platforms, manipulators, grippers, the control of aerial platform and manipulators, the interaction of aerial manipulator with the environment, through forces and torque. In particular, the review paper presents the survey of the airborne platforms that can be used for aerial manipulation including the new aerial platforms with aerial manipulation capability. We also classified the aerial grippers and aerial manipulators based on their designs and characteristics. The recent contributions regarding the control of the aerial manipulator platform is also discussed. The environment interaction of aerial manipulators is also surveyed which includes, different strategies used for end-effectors interaction with the environment, application of force, application of torque and visual servoing. A recent and growing interest of researchers about the multi-UAV collaborative aerial manipulation was also noticed and hence different strategies for collaborative aerial manipulation are also surveyed, discussed and critically analyzed. Some key challenges regarding outdoor aerial manipulation and energy constraints in aerial manipulation are also discussed